Preface by the author
Growing up in South Africa and living with the injustices of Apartheid inevitably confronts one with the question of how such wrongs come into being and endure for so long. My personal attempts to confront this question very soon led to the depressing realization that racism and prejudice were not just South African phenomena. The cruelty and absurdity of prejudice, with its often tragically destructive consequences, pervade human history. How can we explain phenomena that are so often harmful and which may seem so completely irrational ? It has only been in the past seventy years that the social sciences have begun to make a determined effort to understand the nature and causes of prejudice, yet already important advances have been made. This book is about that effort.